Anonymous
Post 05/25/2018 10:23     Subject: Re:Can achievement gap be closed with extra tutoring?
Sorry, I meant to write "my school" and not "my son." My son's school is mixed ability for homeroom and that's about it. I can't imagine being a student who is above grade level and sitting through 2 hours of a literacy block but only getting 20ish minutes (maybe) of the teacher's time because she has 4 other reading groups to deal with.
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2018 10:20     Subject: Re:Can achievement gap be closed with extra tutoring?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Many of the current complaints about students using technology as a babysitter are due to the fact that the teachers' classes are mixed ability. So he/she is expected to meet the needs of students across a huge spectrum of ability and skills. Without technology, the students would be doing busywork on paper. If teachers could group by ability for math and reading, everyone would be happier. My friends who are teachers cannot believe that they spend so much of their time and money making up work for their 5 reading groups when they could have one or two.


This.

Why can't they test everyone and divide them into three groups - above level, on level and below level, and proceed accordingly? Say, if 'on-level' for 3rd grade is reading level P, everyone above goes to one teacher, everyone on or slightly below goes to another, and those who need serious remediation are pulled out for more instruction. From my experience with my child's reading instruction, those levels are approximate, at best.



We used to do this at my old school but now even they don't do it anymore. They've most likely latched on some study or studies to show that this method isn't best for students. I took my kid out of public schools due to this and other "design" flaws. Now he is appropriately grouped and is doing well. My son has a 45 minute intervention block each day where students are pulled out for instruction on their level. It doesn't work well because so many people are involved- ESOL, reading specialists, Special Ed, etc. It is rare that every person can pull their group every day. Plus, they take their groups to the modular buildings due to space issues so travel time eats into the 45 mins. It really isn't that effective.

Anonymous
Post 05/25/2018 10:19     Subject: Re:Can achievement gap be closed with extra tutoring?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Many of the current complaints about students using technology as a babysitter are due to the fact that the teachers' classes are mixed ability. So he/she is expected to meet the needs of students across a huge spectrum of ability and skills. Without technology, the students would be doing busywork on paper. If teachers could group by ability for math and reading, everyone would be happier. My friends who are teachers cannot believe that they spend so much of their time and money making up work for their 5 reading groups when they could have one or two.


This.

Why can't they test everyone and divide them into three groups - above level, on level and below level, and proceed accordingly? Say, if 'on-level' for 3rd grade is reading level P, everyone above goes to one teacher, everyone on or slightly below goes to another, and those who need serious remediation are pulled out for more instruction. From my experience with my child's reading instruction, those levels are approximate, at best.


Blame democrats but specifically progressives

Tracking is racist now apparently.

Anonymous
Post 05/25/2018 10:07     Subject: Re:Can achievement gap be closed with extra tutoring?
Anonymous wrote:Many of the current complaints about students using technology as a babysitter are due to the fact that the teachers' classes are mixed ability. So he/she is expected to meet the needs of students across a huge spectrum of ability and skills. Without technology, the students would be doing busywork on paper. If teachers could group by ability for math and reading, everyone would be happier. My friends who are teachers cannot believe that they spend so much of their time and money making up work for their 5 reading groups when they could have one or two.


This.

Why can't they test everyone and divide them into three groups - above level, on level and below level, and proceed accordingly? Say, if 'on-level' for 3rd grade is reading level P, everyone above goes to one teacher, everyone on or slightly below goes to another, and those who need serious remediation are pulled out for more instruction. From my experience with my child's reading instruction, those levels are approximate, at best.
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2018 10:04     Subject: Can achievement gap be closed with extra tutoring?
Anonymous wrote:All you need is 1 disruptive kid or behind kid in your "high caliber class" and that is the time sink. Too much pressure to test well and get everyone to same level.

The only thing worse than public school is a massive county-run public school.


OK, let's get rid of the public school system! No more public schools. And then what?
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2018 10:02     Subject: Can achievement gap be closed with extra tutoring?
All you need is 1 disruptive kid or behind kid in your "high caliber class" and that is the time sink. Too much pressure to test well and get everyone to same level.

The only thing worse than public school is a massive county-run public school.
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2018 10:00     Subject: Re:Can achievement gap be closed with extra tutoring?
Many of the current complaints about students using technology as a babysitter are due to the fact that the teachers' classes are mixed ability. So he/she is expected to meet the needs of students across a huge spectrum of ability and skills. Without technology, the students would be doing busywork on paper. If teachers could group by ability for math and reading, everyone would be happier. My friends who are teachers cannot believe that they spend so much of their time and money making up work for their 5 reading groups when they could have one or two.
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2018 09:39     Subject: Can achievement gap be closed with extra tutoring?
what grade are your kids in? what general cluster?
very curious and we need to decide where we're going soon.
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2018 09:39     Subject: Re:Can achievement gap be closed with extra tutoring?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Differentiation and tracking

Textbooks

Reinstate final exams

Fines for being absent

Mandatory attendance to summer schools and tutoring if below grade level, else you pay a fine

More instructional days, shorter summer vacation. More breaks between quarters for students to catch up if they are lagging behind

Hold students back if they are failing

Mandatory regular attendance. Unexcused absence should be fined

Increase school day by an hour. This hour should be reserved for homework.





Half the time my kids are at school seems like a total waste. If they had aids to help move things along, they could probably get more done in less time. Seriously, my kid tells me they watch PBS kids and play games on their chromebooks half the day. I'm not sure what the teacher does, but they aren't actively trying to educate my kids.

If they allowed differentiation this would not happen as often. If the teacher has 10-15 minutes with each reading/math group they spend the rest of their time doing worksheets or on chromebooks etc. If there are only one or two ability groups per classroom much of the learning would be facilitated through direct interaction with the teacher and they would spend less time on devices.
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2018 09:22     Subject: Re:Can achievement gap be closed with extra tutoring?
Anonymous wrote:Differentiation and tracking

Textbooks

Reinstate final exams

Fines for being absent

Mandatory attendance to summer schools and tutoring if below grade level, else you pay a fine

More instructional days, shorter summer vacation. More breaks between quarters for students to catch up if they are lagging behind

Hold students back if they are failing

Mandatory regular attendance. Unexcused absence should be fined

Increase school day by an hour. This hour should be reserved for homework.





Half the time my kids are at school seems like a total waste. If they had aids to help move things along, they could probably get more done in less time. Seriously, my kid tells me they watch PBS kids and play games on their chromebooks half the day. I'm not sure what the teacher does, but they aren't actively trying to educate my kids.
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2018 08:34     Subject: Re:Can achievement gap be closed with extra tutoring?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Many parents think the parenting is providing the basics. School will take care of the education. So it's really a gap in expectations. If you expect 100% of your child's education to be taken care of by their school, there is most likely going to be a gap forever. When we meet with parents in kindergarten at my Title 1 school, many of them are surprised and even shocked that their child is below grade level. "How can they be below grade level when they just started school?" They think that school will teach them all that they need to know.


That is what my parents thought in the 1970s, and so did almost everyone else's parents, in a public school system in a university town in the Midwest. Most of us went on to advanced degrees and professional careers.

We live in different times due to global competition. I wish folks would stop comparing the US now to the "good old days". I grew up in the 70's./80's. A lot of the students that went on to top colleges back then probably wouldn't get in today.

Back then, rote learning was the thing. Terrible way to teach. Back then, we had more factory jobs, and people could live a comfortable middle class life with such jobs. Not so much anymore in many places in this country.

STEM wasn't as a big a deal back then as it is today.

Please step out of the 70's time warp.


I'm guessing that you don't remember a lot of the educational fads in the 70s like: open classrooms, "new math" and whole language. Umm, no, not all of us were doing rote memorization. But memorizing information as a small child never hurt anyone. How do you think our country led the tech revolution if all of us were idiots?


Exactly, I received a superb math education from public schools in that period, wouldn't trade it for anything. When it worked, it worked very well, and it produced more advanced math/science students in the US than ever before. But for regular students it probably was a failure, or at least an experiment that needed more time than there was patience for. My grandmother was a nurse, and her day-to-day math skills learned during the depression were probably much more reliable than those of the weaker students in my graduating class. I also have no problem with rote--there are things you understand because they've been explained to you, but there are just as many that you glean through experience or even the boredom of repetition.

Also growing up in SoCal, I had classmates whose parents were migrant workers. The idea that everyone will be educated and that schools don't cooperate with immigration authorities is long established in my upbringing. I benefited from these experiences and the openness of that time period. I don't want my kids in the segregated schools of my parents' generation.
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2018 07:48     Subject: Re:Can achievement gap be closed with extra tutoring?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Many parents think the parenting is providing the basics. School will take care of the education. So it's really a gap in expectations. If you expect 100% of your child's education to be taken care of by their school, there is most likely going to be a gap forever. When we meet with parents in kindergarten at my Title 1 school, many of them are surprised and even shocked that their child is below grade level. "How can they be below grade level when they just started school?" They think that school will teach them all that they need to know.


That is what my parents thought in the 1970s, and so did almost everyone else's parents, in a public school system in a university town in the Midwest. Most of us went on to advanced degrees and professional careers.

We live in different times due to global competition. I wish folks would stop comparing the US now to the "good old days". I grew up in the 70's./80's. A lot of the students that went on to top colleges back then probably wouldn't get in today.

Back then, rote learning was the thing. Terrible way to teach. Back then, we had more factory jobs, and people could live a comfortable middle class life with such jobs. Not so much anymore in many places in this country.

STEM wasn't as a big a deal back then as it is today.

Please step out of the 70's time warp.


I'm guessing that you don't remember a lot of the educational fads in the 70s like: open classrooms, "new math" and whole language. Umm, no, not all of us were doing rote memorization. But memorizing information as a small child never hurt anyone. How do you think our country led the tech revolution if all of us were idiots?[/quote]

High hit rate of those from Montessori and private schools. Critical thinkers or those who can work through add/aspergers w hyper focus on work.

Anonymous
Post 05/24/2018 23:26     Subject: Re:Can achievement gap be closed with extra tutoring?
Differentiation and tracking

Textbooks

Reinstate final exams

Fines for being absent

Mandatory attendance to summer schools and tutoring if below grade level, else you pay a fine

More instructional days, shorter summer vacation. More breaks between quarters for students to catch up if they are lagging behind

Hold students back if they are failing

Mandatory regular attendance. Unexcused absence should be fined

Increase school day by an hour. This hour should be reserved for homework.



Anonymous
Post 05/24/2018 23:21     Subject: Can achievement gap be closed with extra tutoring?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I think differentiation is the key. The floor needs to be higher. But then there should be no bar on acceleration.

Achievement gap is not the issue. The real issue is that the lower performing students need to be brought up to a minimum functional level.and all kids need to be educated to their full capacity.

Immigrants without legal standing need to pay a fee for getting their kids educated.


Plyler v. Doe (US Supreme Court - 1982) - Held: A Texas statute which withholds from local school districts any state funds for the education of children who were not "legally admitted" into the United States, and which authorizes local school districts to deny enrollment to such children, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Read more here : https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/457/202

Denying illegal aliens children acces to public education or trying to charge them is unconstitutional. Not gonna happen.

And, despite what Betsey DeVos seems to think, calling ICE on illegal alien students is also illegal. See -- https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2018/05/23/astounding-ignorance-of-the-law-civil-rights-groups-slam-devos-for-saying-schools-can-report-undocumented-students/?utm_term=.38dd0fcda34a

PP, your ignorance of the law is also astounding.


My ignorance of the law is not as astounding as the fact that these laws exist in this country. I have worked and lived in four countries in my life. There is no other country where this is being allowed. I am really astounded.

What constitutes free education? Does it include free transportation, free ESOL accomodation or free and reduced meals? Can these students be held back if they do not get a minimum grade? Can they be charged a fee if they are held back? What is the age requirement to be an MCPS student? Finally, can these students be educated in a special school until they are caught up with their language skills and they are on grade level before they are allowed in regular schools?

Anonymous
Post 05/24/2018 23:07     Subject: Re:Can achievement gap be closed with extra tutoring?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Many parents think the parenting is providing the basics. School will take care of the education. So it's really a gap in expectations. If you expect 100% of your child's education to be taken care of by their school, there is most likely going to be a gap forever. When we meet with parents in kindergarten at my Title 1 school, many of them are surprised and even shocked that their child is below grade level. "How can they be below grade level when they just started school?" They think that school will teach them all that they need to know.


That is what my parents thought in the 1970s, and so did almost everyone else's parents, in a public school system in a university town in the Midwest. Most of us went on to advanced degrees and professional careers.

We live in different times due to global competition. I wish folks would stop comparing the US now to the "good old days". I grew up in the 70's./80's. A lot of the students that went on to top colleges back then probably wouldn't get in today.

Back then, rote learning was the thing. Terrible way to teach. Back then, we had more factory jobs, and people could live a comfortable middle class life with such jobs. Not so much anymore in many places in this country.

STEM wasn't as a big a deal back then as it is today.

Please step out of the 70's time warp.


I'm guessing that you don't remember a lot of the educational fads in the 70s like: open classrooms, "new math" and whole language. Umm, no, not all of us were doing rote memorization. But memorizing information as a small child never hurt anyone. How do you think our country led the tech revolution if all of us were idiots?